Jamie Carragher has been passed fit to play against Portsmouth in the early kick off this Saturday.

‘Carragher has been training normally with the rest of the players who`ve been here all week,’ said Rafa Benitez. ‘He is okay and I think he will be available this weekend, which is good news for us.’

On the rest of the squad Rafa had this to say:

‘Fabio Aurelio is now getting closer to the squad after playing 45 minutes for the reserves. Harry Kewell is also running again and is nearer to fitness.’

‘Today, I`m keeping my fingers crossed for the safe return of all our internationals. It’s not going to be easy for us to travel to Portsmouth tomorrow to play without one training session.

Benitez has also spoke of how unhappy he is with the Reds again facing an early kick off on Saturday following the international break.

‘All you can ask the players to do when they return is some running, so it’s always a difficult time.’

‘I am really disappointed with the fixtures that we have because it is more difficult here in England. You play early kick-offs on the Saturday (after internationals) and it is impossible to prepare the team properly.

‘The players arrive back on Thursday evening and the only thing you can do with some of them is just to run a little bit and send them home.

‘Friday morning you will have a light training session and you will travel to Portsmouth in this case and you cannot prepare the team.’

‘Normally the players that are going away are internationals because they are good players and you need these players for winning every game.

‘For me it’s impossible to prepare the team properly, you can prepare small details but to prepare the team physically and mentally for the game will be difficult.’

Rafa: One game at a time

Rafael Benitez has been talking about Liverpool’s current league position and what they need to do to keep the position their own.

Speaking to the official LFC website he said: ‘It’s clear that if you want to stay at the top of the table you must win nearly all of your games.’

‘We will try to do that even though we know it will be difficult. The type of games like we have this weekend are really important for the confidence of the team.

‘If we can win here we will still be at the top of the table, everybody will be happy and we will be ready going into the next game.

‘We have made a good start. Confidence is great - all the players are feeling like that, so we can play and win. But we must take one game at a time and not think too much about the future.’